dare to doodle!

If you’ve ever been told that doodling is a pointless waste of time, fear not. It turns out that doodling is an awesome way to unlock creativity and stay engaged.

In “The Doodle Revolution,” author Sunni Brown reports that some of our greatest thinkers doodled: Steve Jobs, John F. Kennedy, Henry Ford, to name a few. Brown works with companies to teach them how the use of visual language can encourage greater creativity and productivity.

Doodling in the workplace is not a bad thing, according to Brown. Here’s why:

Doodling engages the mind in a way that helps the doodler think and process information.

Doodling helps you focus, contrary to beliefs that it shows signs of boredom and loss of focus. It is actually an anchoring task, a pre-emptive measure that can keep you from losing focus.

Doodling can help find new solutions. “Even if you’re just scribbling in the margins, you’re lighting up different networks in your brain,” Brown writes. Using many neurological networks at the same time creates what Brown calls “a portal for imaging and inventing preferred realities.”

Doodling is a frequent and favorite activity around the offices of TCG Advertising & Design. We always felt it was a way to help us get out of a rut and spark a new way of thinking about an issue or problem. So we say: Doodle on!

Note: We learned about Brown’s book from Entrepreneur online columnist Lisa Evans, herself a doodler.